Hurricane presents unprecedented challenges - Bush

Confronting one of the nation’s worst natural disasters, US President George Bush said rebuilding from the massive devastation of Hurricane Katrina would take years and that “the days seem awfully dark” for millions of people suffering across the devastated Gulf Coast.

The Bush administration is working to put a price tag on the federal government’s share of the recovery effort, which the president will submit in an emergency budget request to Congress in the days ahead.

“The folks on the Gulf Coast are going to need the help of this country for a long time,” Bush said in remarks delivered yesterday in the White House Rose Garden in Washington, flanked by his grim-faced Cabinet members.

Determined to show the public that he was leading recovery efforts, Bush cut two days off his Texas holiday to return to the White House to work on the response, with a low-level Air Force One fly-past over the devastation on the way back.

He also agreed to a rare live, one-on-one television interview today on ABC’s Good Morning America programme.

Bush said the federal government had already dispatched assistance to the Gulf Coast region, including 5.4 million pre-cooked meals, 13.4 million litres of water, more than 1,000 search and rescue personnel and the floating hospital ship USNS Comfort. It was just the first trickle of help that Washington planned to provide to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, the president said.

“We are dealing with one of the worst natural disasters in our nation’s history,” Bush said. “This recovery will take a long time. This recovery will take years.”

An additional 10,000 National Guard troops from across the country began pouring into the Gulf Coast yesterday to shore up security, rescue and relief operations. The new units brought the number of troops dedicated to the effort to more than 28,000, in what may be the largest military response to a natural disaster.

The Pentagon was sending a broad contingent of ships, aircraft, trucks, medical support and other personnel to support federal agencies already providing aid to gulf region, including 60 helicopters to be used for search and rescue operations, damage assessment flights and the distribution of supplies.

With key Gulf Coast refineries and pipelines out of service, the Energy Department tried to keep fuel production steady by tapping an emergency government stockpile of oil and to temporarily ease pollution standards on gasoline and diesel fuel. But the president raised the possibility that the hurricane would lead to even higher petrol prices and shortages in some areas.

“This will help take some pressure off fuel price,” Bush said. “But our citizens must understand this storm has disrupted the capacity to make and distribute fuel.”

Bush said he asked the pilot of Air Force One to fly over the Gulf Coast region as he returned to Washington from his Texas ranch so he could see the magnitude of devastation firsthand. He saw homes reduced to rubble in Mississippi and flood waters creeping toward the centre of New Orleans, submerging homes nearly to their rooftops.

“This is going to be a difficult road,” Bush said from the White House. “The challenges that we face on the ground are unprecedented. But there’s no doubt in my mind we’re going to succeed. Right now the days seem awfully dark for those affected. I understand that. But I’m confident that, with time, you can get your life back in order, new communities will flourish, the great city of New Orleans will be back on its feet, and America will be a stronger place for it.”

White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said the administration was working on an emergency funding request to submit to Congress, but she gave no estimate of how much it would be. “We’re currently in the process of evaluating how much and when and expect to have something to the Hill soon,” she said.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said truckloads of water, ice, meals, medical supplies, generators, tents and tarpaulins were loaded aboard 1,700 lorries in an initial emergency response. He pledged a full range of federal resources, ranging from bridge inspection and repair to restoration of communications networks to mosquito abatement in a region with vast stretches underwater.

Michael Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, announced that he had declared a public health emergency in the area stretching from Louisiana to Florida. “We are gravely concerned about the potential for cholera, typhoid and dehydrating diseases that could come as a result of the stagnant water and the conditions,” he said.